Dave Mount
03-04-2021, 12:25 PM
I acquired a bargain bin 1x6 brownheart board, not really knowing what I was going to do with it. I'd never turned brownheart (aka wacapou), but last night seemed like a good time to find out what it was like.
It's moderately hard, same Janka hardness as shagbark hickory. Turned reasonably well, but even on smooth peeling cuts on the face grain the shavings weren't ribbons. Seemed like it had a mild blunting effect but not bad. When turning the bottom, I had to cut uphill on the wings (outside in) to keep from breaking out the edge, then clean up the roughness with an NRS. It machined smoothly enough that I only had to do touchup sanding by hand -- it is super oily though, it turns sandpaper to a gummy mess very quickly. In the second picture, I had wiped the dust off with a rag wetted with naptha so I could see the surface better -- the sawdust is kind of gummy. The grain is kind of like pheasantwood (which I've never turned, but have seen pictures of); the wood database says they are relatives.
Anyway, some intel if you ever come across some turning stock.
Best,
Dave
453650453651453652
It's moderately hard, same Janka hardness as shagbark hickory. Turned reasonably well, but even on smooth peeling cuts on the face grain the shavings weren't ribbons. Seemed like it had a mild blunting effect but not bad. When turning the bottom, I had to cut uphill on the wings (outside in) to keep from breaking out the edge, then clean up the roughness with an NRS. It machined smoothly enough that I only had to do touchup sanding by hand -- it is super oily though, it turns sandpaper to a gummy mess very quickly. In the second picture, I had wiped the dust off with a rag wetted with naptha so I could see the surface better -- the sawdust is kind of gummy. The grain is kind of like pheasantwood (which I've never turned, but have seen pictures of); the wood database says they are relatives.
Anyway, some intel if you ever come across some turning stock.
Best,
Dave
453650453651453652